AUTHORS NOTE: Thank you as always to everyone reviewing, reading, following and supporting this story.
Brax is madly walking through the restaurant sorting out his orders and stock take of the alcohol, feeling full of frustration from the morning's events.
As soon as Brax returns behind the bar to finish off his paperwork, John and Marilyn walk in.
John heads straight up to the bar, unable to help himself but confront the oldest Braxton about what occurred that morning and comment on his parenting style.
John takes a seat on one of the stools and props his elbow up onto the bar.
"G'day Brax," he greets.
Brax glances up from his papers.
"John, Marilyn," he greets back.
Marilyn gives Brax a loving smile.
"You know I saw your little show this morning over at your place and might I say what you did was jolly good."
"I like to think I'm bringing up my brothers to be well behaved and respectful," Brax replies.
"Those brothers of yours definitely got what was coming to them."
Brax lets out a grunt as he continues to eye John and listen to what the older man is saying.
"I mean how could anyone remain calm after seeing that rudeness and mess on their car? I think you remained as level headed about the whole thing and reacted appropriately. I just hope you continue to keep those brothers of yours in line. We can't have any more delinquents running around town here," John comments.
Brax immediately frowns at John's comment; sure, he is furious at his little brothers but that didn't mean he wouldn't protect them at every cost when someone put them down.
"My brothers are not delinquents! Yes, they screwed up, but they are good kids. Casey is kind and has strong values and is extremely loyal; the type of kid you'd want to stand by you and sure he has his ups and downs with his behaviour but he tries, and Kyle doesn't have a vindictive bone in his body and is caring and nonjudgmental; which is more than I can say for you. I bet you weren't an angel at their age either. So, don't talk about my brothers like that again and mind your own damn business, Palmer!" Brax snaps.
John got up off the stool all flustered and insulted.
"Well excuse me," he scoffs and makes his way over to a table.
Marilyn gives Brax a sympathetic smile as Brax huffs and flaps around angrily at the bar with his paperwork.
"I'm so sorry Brax. You know I think very highly of those two. Kyle is such a smart boy; he's going to go places one day and Casey is a sweet boy underneath his mishaps," Marilyn says.
"Thanks Marilyn, but are you and John here to order or did he just come here to give me parenting advice that I do not need?" Brax grumbles as he glances over at John.
"I know Darling, you don't. You raise those boys so well and yes we came here to order. Can we please get a steak sandwich for John and a Greek salad for me, and may we please have two iced teas?" Marilyn asks sweetly.
"Sure, I'll get right on it," Brax replies.
Marilyn smiles and heads over to the table her husband was sitting at.
"Well how do you like that what just happened?" John scoffs.
"Well John you did overstep a little," Marilyn informs.
Brax comes over shortly after, with John and Marilyn's drinks, as he is about to walk away John calls out to him.
"Listen Brax: I guess I kind of overstepped with my comment and I'm sorry if I offended you or your brothers. It's just I have a habit of speaking how I see it, and from the incident this morning it was a huge surprise. Though I must say no-one should ever treat their brother the way that young Casey did," John explains.
Brax furrows his brow.
"How do you mean?"
"John, it's really not our business," Marilyn says.
"I think Brax deserves to know what his brother gets up to when he's not there and especially after this morning."
"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" Brax asks.
"Marilyn and I saw Casey and Kyle in a little dispute and then Casey moved a bucket of water too close to Kyle in a way that when he moved around he would trip and that is exactly what happened; Kyle tripped and fell onto the driveway and got wet in the process," John explains.
"I called out to Kyle and he assured me he was okay, however it looked like he had quite a fall," Marilyn quickly adds.
Brax huffs; clearly unimpressed by what he is hearing.
"Well thank you for telling me. I'll question them about it when I get home," Brax replies before walking back into the stockroom to continue his stock checks.
Kyle and Casey continue to work for several more hours after lunch, with Heath casually supervising whilst relaxing back in his deck chair, drinking his beer and scrolling through his phone.
As the time nears five o'clock, Heath notices his Ute coming around the corner approaching the house.
"Here comes, big bro," Heath announces and stands up from his deck chair.
Terrified of his big brother's reaction, Casey scrambles towards the back of the Ute to try and hide his sprayed 'fixed-up' mess; practically tripping over his dropped rags and scrubbing brushes in haste.
Kyle too is scared of not having Brax's Ute spotless enough to avoid further wrath and slows down his cleaning, whilst attentively watching his big brother come into the driveway.
Casey gulps nervously as he watches Brax drive up the driveway and park next to his Ute.
Brax sternly glances at his brothers when he gets out of Heath's Ute.
"Well boys; how's it going? Can I see my face in it?" Brax demands in a no nonsense tone.
"We tried...I tried really hard, but some stuff won't come off," Kyle timidly replies; moving to stand to the side of Brax's Ute to face his big brother.
Brax walks around the front of his Ute, inspecting his brother's cleaning efforts.
It is some-what clean, but as suspected would need detailing so Brax had already organised a quote during his shift at work.
As he passes around the other side he glances at Heath and tosses him back his keys.
Casey's stomach flip-flops as he hears Brax coming around nearer to the back of the Ute; he shifts his feet nervously.
Brax stops upon seeing Casey clearly covering the back of his Ute.
Brax waits momentarily with a stern gaze, for Casey to move on his own, but the scared teen just remains in place and awkwardly stares at the ground.
"Casey: move," Brax barks.
Frozen to his spot, Casey refuses to move.
Not wasting another second, Brax grabs Casey's arm and yanks him forward and away from his Ute.
Casey yelps in fear and stares timidly at his big brother as Brax develops a horrified look on his face seeing the huge pink coloured mark covering most of the back of his Ute.
"What the hell is this? I tell you to clean it and you spend all day playing around making more atrocious artwork!" Brax bellows.
"N... No...I...I... I was trying to fix it; it wouldn't come off. I honestly tried. I...I... didn't know what else to do. I'm sor..." Casey stutters but is cut off.
"I don't want to hear excuses; it should never have happened in the first place!"
Casey startles and starts to cry from Brax's intimidating yell and reflexively puts his free hand behind him over part of his backside and shifts in an attempt to escape.
"I don't, wa...want another spanking, a...again, please. I...I'm so...sorry," Casey whines as tears fall freely down his face.
Brax scowls angrily and gives Casey's arm a squeeze.
"Give me a damn good reason why I shouldn't spank you, huh? Just look at this: you've just made the damage to the back of my Ute worse!" Brax reprimands.
"Please don't; it hurts so much. I'm sorry. I thought I could fix it," Casey sobs.
Brax huffs and pulls Casey around to the side of his Ute and gives Casey a slight shake.
"Casey, I am not giving you a reason to cry, so calm yourself down," Brax says roughly.
Casey sobs for a few more moments before shakily settling himself down.
"Kyle: get here!" Brax commands.
Kyle shuffles towards his brothers.
Once close enough Brax reaches over and grabs Kyle's arm.
"Now I told you both I would put your faces in it if this was not clean enough," Brax warns and instantly grabs both his teen brothers by the neck of their shirts and presses them up against the door of his Ute.
"Just so we're clear: this had better not ever happen again!" Brax reprimands.
"I swear," Kyle is quick to promise as a few tears begin to fall.
"Uh huh," Casey agrees with a mild head nod and sniffle.
Brax exhales heavily and releases his hold on his brothers.
Kyle and Casey cautiously move away and remain staring down shamefully.
"I will be getting my Ute professionally cleaned and you both will be paying off the bill through helping out at the restaurant for however many days it takes to pay off the bill and in fact I think I will get Heath's cleaned as well," Brax states.
Kyle nods his head in understanding of his punishment, however, Casey's eyes widen at the thought of more hard labour.
"But we didn't do anything to Heath's Ute; it's not fair," Casey whispers; not feeling his usual protesting self when he is still in the presence of his super angry big brother.
"I beg your pardon? It sounds perfectly fair; after all it was Heath's Ute you were planning on vandalising so it will be a good lesson to the both of you," Brax sternly informs.
"Now tidy all of these cleaning bits and pieces then get inside; the both of you!" Brax finishes with a harsh yell.
Kyle and Casey immediately scramble to clean away all the scrubbing brushes, rags and buckets as Heath and Brax watch on.
"That's certainly showing them who's boss," Heath comments.
Brax scoffs.
"What's with the deck chair?" he asks.
"Just thought I'd better supervise the two Muppets; make sure they didn't get themselves into too much more trouble," Heath answers.
Brax shakes his head and wanders inside, with Heath following in tow, carrying the deck chair to replace back outside.
Brax grabs a premade steak and creamy mushroom pie from the fridge that he'd bought home from work the day before and places it in the oven.
"Are you staying for dinner?" Brax asks Heath, just as Kyle and Casey walk through the door, looking worn out, frustrated and miserable.
Heath smirks and shakes his head.
"Oh no, Big Fella: not with the tension going on here. I'll go and hang with mates tonight."
Heath then heads towards the door to leave.
"Bye, little brothers."
"Bye," Kyle mumbles.
"Goodbye," Casey adds.
Brax begins to set the table.
"If you are finished outside I want you both to get and have a shower, and be ready for dinner by six-thirty, because afterwards we will be having a talk and you will both be going straight to bed," Brax instructs; giving them an hour to get ready.
Kyle and Casey make their way down the hall to their bedroom.
"Casey, I think it's only fair I have the first shower, seeing as my pants are still damp because of you," Kyle informs.
"Whatever," Casey replies with annoyance, then decides to question Kyle about his explanation to Brax about his Ute.
"Why did you tell Brax only you tried hard to clean?" he grumbles.
"What are you talking about?" Kyle asks in confusion.
"You started with saying we but then corrected yourself and said you. I worked hard too you know," Casey retorts.
Kyle thinks back and realises what Casey is going on about.
"I was nervous and just wanted to be on Brax's good side. I didn't think you'd take what I said so literally," Kyle replies, feeling slightly frustrated.
"I'm not. I'm just saying you didn't have to imply I did nothing," Casey grumbles.
Kyle huffs, "I didn't."
Not willing to bite further, Kyle focuses on sorting out his pajamas and under clothes for his shower.
Whilst Kyle is preoccupied getting his things together, Casey quickly gathers up his pajamas and rushes out the door towards the bathroom.
Kyle grabs his clothes and quickly follows behind.
"Casey! I said I wanted the first shower!" Kyle snaps and tries to push and hold open the bathroom door.
He is tired, dirty and damp and just wanted to feel clean again.
"You were taking too long. It's my turn; so get out," Casey argues and pushes on the door hard; slamming it shut loudly in Kyle's face.
Brax hears the yelling and slamming of the bathroom door and storms towards the hall.
"What is going on down here?" he demands, with his hands firmly on his hips.
The water in the shower starts running and Kyle hesitantly looks up at Brax.
"Nothing," he whispers.
Brax raises his brow.
"Well it had better be nothing," he warns, before leaving to go back to setting the table.
Having no other choice, Kyle goes back to his bedroom and waits for Casey to finish in his shower.
Casey finally comes out of the bathroom after forty minutes, all fresh and clean.
Kyle glances at the clock on the bedside table and realises he only had twenty minutes to have his shower and be ready to sit down for dinner.
He sighs heavily and takes his clothes into the bathroom.
Kyle leaves his bandages on his knees and has a quick shower; just enough to clean his body and wash his hair.
He is craving a longer shower to calm down and get thoroughly clean to his standards but that wasn't an option if he didn't want to anger Brax and be late for dinner.
Kyle scrubs his hair with his towel as he leaves the bathroom and has mere minutes to spare before Brax is ready to serve up dinner.
Casey is already sitting at the table when Kyle walks out to place his dirty clothes into the laundry basket.
Brax eyes Kyle and pulls the pie from the oven.
Kyle quickly races over to sit down and Brax places down a plate with a piece of pie into the three spots on the table for his brothers and himself.
There is nothing but awkward silence around the dinner table and the scrapping of forks on plates.
Kyle and Casey are too nervous to really eat; avoiding eye contact with Brax at any cost, knowing their big brother is still furious with them.
Brax occasionally glances up and notices Kyle and Casey picking at their food, until he becomes irritated by the silence and their slow refusal to eat.
"Both of you stop mucking about and eat your dinner," Brax orders gruffly, as he continues to roughly chew down his own.
Kyle starts to speed up his eating to avoid making Brax madder, whilst Casey still picks but eats slightly faster.
Kyle glances up and sees Brax's completely finished plate and he wasn't too far off when he remembers Brax still had to inform them of the rest of their punishment.
Dreading the results but understanding he had to do the right thing and comply, Kyle lets out a sniffle.
"Brax?" Kyle quietly calls out.
"Yes?" Brax replies sternly.
"I...I...was just wondering what our extra punishment was going to be?" Kyle mumbles; avoiding looking up for he knew he'd easily burst into tears from the guilt inside and his brother's anger.
Brax exhales deeply and gets up to put his plate in the sink.
"A very good question and one that I will answer as soon as you have both finished your dinner, so be quick about it and thank you for reminding me Kyle and accepting the consequences," Brax replies.
Casey grumbles and turns to face Kyle, "why'd you say that for?"
Kyle doesn't answer but soon shifts when he feels a slight jab from a kick to his left knee and he reaches down to give it a rub as he scowls at Casey.
He doesn't want to alert Brax, considering he doesn't want him knowing about what happened.
Brax turns and eyes his teen brothers.
"You know I would have remembered regardless, Casey; now have you finished?" Brax says sternly.
Casey scowls and shoves the final piece of pie into his mouth just as Brax whips his plate away, along with Kyle's.
"Thanks," Kyle mumbles; still not leaving his eyes from the table.
Brax sits back down and interlocks his fists on the table in front of him.
"Now, for your additional punishments: you both already know you are to pay off for the detailing of both Heath's and my Ute and I've already gotten a quote and it is going to cost three hundred and fifty for each Ute, with the additional one-hundred and fifty for a paint job on my Ute," Brax says and glances towards Casey.
"Now, Kyle, I don't expect you to pay for the hundred and fifty seeing as you had nothing to do with spraying my Ute, but you will pay off the detailing along with you Casey, who will be paying off the extra and in doing so you will both work three and a half days at the restaurant at minimum wage of thirteen dollars an hour, to pay off the damages and Casey you will work a additional day and a half to pay off the spray damage."
Casey scowls at the thought of having to work more than Kyle, while Kyle nods in understanding.
"However, I am not finished yet. You are both grounded and during that time there will be the usual no TV, no electronics, so laptop, and ipad will come to me as will any video games. Kyle, I'll be taking your guitar and Casey your soccer ball and surfboard, and I will be confiscating both of your phones up until school returns and then you will only get them back during school hours in case you need to call, or I need to reach you. There will be extra chores to be done and I will be ceasing your allowances until the end of your grounding. Now because each of you played a different part in this prank the length of your grounding is going to be different," Brax informs.
Kyle and Casey glance up briefly wondering what Brax meant by different.
Brax faces Kyle.
"Kyle, because you were more of a follower, I am grounding you for only three weeks and Casey seeing as you instigated this prank, used foul imagery, and blackmailed Kyle, you are going to be grounded for six weeks."
Casey stares with his mouth open in shock; six weeks is an eternity!
Casey is about to protest when he sees the stern look on Brax's face.
Brax gives Casey a finger point and knowing his youngest brother's reaction he is ready to stop it in its tracks.
"Don't you dare begin to argue about your punishment, when you know very well you brought this on yourself," Brax scolds.
Casey stares down at the table in silence, admitting defeat as a few tears well in his eyes.
Kyle shifts in his chair also feeling upset over his lengthy grounding and extra penalties but unlike Casey accepted that he deserved the consequences Brax was handing out, whether he liked them or not.
"Now do you both understand about your consequences?" Brax demands.
Kyle nods quietly; biting his lip to stop himself from crying, while Casey also gives a quiet nod, still reeling in shock from his longer grounding than Kyle; thoughts rushing through his mind on the boredom and lack of allowance.
Brax huffs, "Good, now I have one more punishment for the both of you," Brax informs, causing Kyle and Casey to glance up in surprise; Brax had just rattled off a whole list of punishments. What more could he add?
"Due to the criminal behaviour of this prank, I feel it necessary, until I can see you've both learnt a valuable lesson on other people's property and vandalism, I am going to confiscate all your lego Kyle and Casey your surfing magazines and cancel your subscription," Brax informs sternly.
Casey and Kyle's eyes go wide; they were both their most prized possessions; Kyle loving and needing his lego as a stress relief and Casey always looking forward to learning new techniques from his surfing magazines every month.
Caught in a state of shock, Casey shifts in his seat and starts to cry, hanging his head in his hands and mumbling.
"It's not fair, I love those mags; please don't take them."
Kyle however goes into a panic.
"Please, Brax; I need my lego, please!" Kyle pleads.
Brax just shakes his head at Kyle's plea and tears start rolling down Kyle's cheeks.
"But I need it for when I get stressed and for my emotional wellbeing," Kyle mumbles.
Brax was aware Kyle worked on his lego anytime he was stressed, or upset from being bullied, but he felt this time he had to stick to his guns, for both teens had crossed a serious line.
"Your punishments are final. You will both give me your things once we are finished here, and I don't want to hear another word about it; am I clear?" Brax says sternly.
Kyle and Casey nod, knowing it is a dead end arguing or pleading with their big brother when his mind was made up.
"Good. Now before we finish up, I have one more thing to discuss and this mostly concerns you Casey," Brax starts and Casey looks up timidly with his wet eyes.
"This is about a little incident that happened today, during the time you should have been focusing on cleaning my Ute," Brax says.
Casey glares over at Kyle, assuming he told Brax what happened between them when he was in the shower.
"It came to my attention when John and Marilyn came into my work today and recalled how you moved a bucket in a way that would make Kyle trip up; did you not?" Brax asks rhetorically.
Casey is lost for words but now his anger is less centred on his brother and more on their nosey neighbour John.
"We just had a little disagreement. I didn't mean for Kyle to trip over the bucket. I must have pushed it over just a bit without meaning to," Casey mumbles out a lie and starts to tear up again.
"I'm not impressed," Brax says and raises his brow; not entirely convinced by Casey's explanation, but picking his battles, Brax decides to leave it be and turns to Kyle.
"Did you get hurt when you tripped Kyle? Marilyn said you had quite a fall," Brax says in a softer tone.
Still shell-shocked from having his lego taken away and subconsciously believing Brax was too mad to care, Kyle shakes his head.
"No, I'm fine," Kyle chokes out in a shaky voice and scrubs his eyes.
Brax sighs and gets up to make a start on washing up while he waits for his brothers to calm down.
After about twenty minutes, Kyle and Casey finally calm down enough for Brax to finish up.
Brax rests his hands against the chair and looks over at his brothers.
"I want you both to go to your room. I will be in shortly to gather up your things then it's straight to bed. I don't care that it's early, it will give you both a good time to think about your actions and get a proper rest in time for a nine o'clock shift at the restaurant tomorrow," Brax informs.
Kyle and Casey miserably get up from the table and make their way down to their room.
Both teens sit on their bed feeling mighty sorry for themselves and it's not long before Brax walks in holding a box.
"Okay, you boys know the drill: phones, ipad, laptop, and Casey your surfing mags into the box. Kyle, I want you to hand me your guitar and Casey your soccer ball, I have already taken your surfboard from the wall," Brax instructs.
Both teens reluctantly hand over their items.
"I will come back with a separate box for you lego," Brax informs and leaves, putting the confiscated items into his room; soon returning with another large box and starts to pack up Kyle's lego sets.
Kyle watches in horror as his lego is packed away.
Casey, already miserable for having his items taken already is sitting on his bed cross-legged, picking at his quilt cover.
"I hope you learn your lesson from this, boys," Brax states and leaves the room, shutting the door behind him.
Kyle hops into his bed, ready to forget the whole day and Casey follows suit and gets into his own bed, pulling the covers up tight for comfort.
"I'm never going to do something like this again. I hate Brax being mad," Casey mumbles.
"Well, you can forget about me following one of your schemes ever again and if you think of teasing me or blackmailing me, I'll tell on you," Kyle mumbles in response, turning the light off and turning his back to Casey.
Casey turns around in the dark to glare at Kyle before spinning back around and facing the wall.
It's not long before both boys succumb to their tiredness and fall asleep.
Brax packs away his brother's items in his bedside table and wardrobe then makes his way into the lounge room with a bottle of beer and flops down on the couch, angrily; flicking on the TV to watch the football.